Khel Power ka

I recently visited my native place. Angnewadi in Malwan. Sindhudurg District. It is very much a centre of Maratha Politics. Narayan Rane is a Demi-God in a place called Kankawli, a few kilometers away from my native place. I go for an annual visit to my native for a religious reason. It is an annual Jatra(fair) at the temple, right next to our house in the native, to which my family is really attached reaching through my ancestor roots.

I got off with my family at the Kankawli station. Moderate weather conditions, sunny day and most importantly away from the city pollution. It is a road journey from here to my native. I come across familiar faces on the hoardings welcoming everybody for the Jatra - Narayan Rane, Bal Thackeray, Raj Thackeray and other biggies apart from other unheard workers of the parties. The banners and arcs are all over the place. Rajnikant would get a complex about the number of banners that exist for the parties if he visits this place... ok not that dramatic... nobody can beat the fan following of Rajnikant... This is the scene every year. After all this is a Maratha politics stronghold. What would one expect out of our politicians if not this... Fair enough.

Now I see cars having MNS and 'the older' Sena stickers printed on them. The cars are full of Orange flag stickers. Few cars have hoisted mini flags on their cars, some are carrying huge flags outside their cars window as if declaring war against somebody. The last time I remember, I felt proud of a similar scene was when India won the T20 World Cup when people were carrying huge flags of India and shouting out of joy from their cars. Well of course the country had made its mark in a prestigious event and there was hysteria in the air, people were jumping from top of the Sea-Link into the sea ( :P )... in short people had gone mad. It was a feeling of unity and a collective feeling of triumph.

I thought to myself what are these people trying to indicate by hoisting the Orange (and the other variety)flags of a particular party over their cars. One can say that they are supporting a certain party and representing that particular party.. ok .. again looking through a political angle things seemed fine. Then I thought these flags also signify power, these flags are also giving power to the people inside the car to throw their weight around, these flags are a signal to everybody around them that .. look liitle one ... don't mess with us.. coz now you where we are coming from.. So many people cant be representing political parties. That is when I get the feeling that this particular "Marathi Manoos" is feeling weak, supporting the agenda of Marathi shovenist parties makes him feel powerful.. It is not like the political parties are brain washing the minds of "this" Marathi Manoos, but the Marathi Manoos is readily wanting to be part of such an ideology because it makes him feel powerful, which wouldn't have been the case(according to them) if such parties did not exist. That gives me an even irritating thought that the Sena's are here to stay, regardless of how much people like you and me, including the 'Asli' Marathi Manoos hate such an ideology.

Another weird incident. We were on our way back from Kankawli. It was just my sis, jiju and myself. A hardcore Marathi gang had seats in our berth. Abusing in every alternate word, I could sense that it is going to be a tough journey back to the city(On our way to the native we had already experienced irritating co-travellers who made us switch of the lights really early, and also woke us up really early with their loud noise). But my doubts were converted into certainty when they removed a carton full of Beer and started opening the bottles 'Rang de Basanti' style. A couple of them were already sloshed, I coudn't imagine what their state would have been if they were going to have more. The TC came in, and he behaved as if he was a guest at a powerful persons house and not the sole authority in the train. My sis was too irritated with the entire scene, my jiju instinctively asked for a change in seat if they had an alternative with them. We asked them if their alternative seats are confirmed to which the sloshed guy replied " Arre amhi Marathi Manoos, no cheating". Fair enough dude, but never use the word Marathi Manoos atleast when you are in a such a state. We ultimately got peaceful seats.

The TC passed by. Jiju reprimanded him, reminded him of his duties, asked him he was pretending to be blind. The TC said that only if any passenger complains do we take action???!!!?? That's like you telling me that you are punishing me for peeing in your backyard only because your neighbour complained that I did so. Didn't you also catch me peeing in your backyard?? Whatever.. but I hope the point is through. But at least I got some respite when I saw he TC ultimately talking to those people outside the compartment where we were sitting earlier. If any action was taken.... I don't know???